IT'S AWWWWWN FOR THE #NYRANGERS & THE #HABS!

The quest for Lord Stanley's Cup began on Tuesday in the NHL's Western Conference and last night, the Eastern Conference launched their games.  The NY Islanders was the first of our local teams to take the ice and got a rude welcome to the post-season by the Pittsburgh Penguins, losing at the CONSOL Energy Center, 5-0.  In the other opening game of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Boston dispatched Toronto in a physical affair, 4-1 to take a 1-0 series lead.

That leads us to tonight's anticipated matchups.  In the first game, the Montreal Canadiens make their long-awaited return to the post-season after a dismal 2012-2013 season where they finished last in the Eastern Conference.  After a front office house-cleaning which saw the team bringing on a new GM and coach, the Habs found themselves flying high with a purpose, going from last place in the conference to winning the Northeast Division in one year.  Now they return to the playoffs, where they will face the Ottawa Senators, who earned an unlikely berth to the playoffs, despite dealing with multiple major injuries throughout the season.  This should be an interesting matchup as both teams are hungry to succeed in the playoffs.

In the other matchup, we find the New York Rangers facing off against their pesky playoff rivals, the Washington Capitals.  It seems like the Rangers are always facing the Capitals in the first round of the playoffs and tradition holds true again this year.  Both teams struggled with consistency this season, especially the Caps, who started out the season on a brutal note, in which they couldn't find their ass from their elbow, let alone the back of the net.

Meanwhile, the Rangers couldn't quite get the right combinations together to produce on a consistent basis, especially their high-priced stars.  Eventually both teams found themselves righting the ship just in time to make the playoffs and they face each other riding a wave of momentum.  This series should be an exciting, hard fought one and it's anybody's guess as to who will win.

That being said, we'll have BOTH games on tonight (7pm)!  We're also hosting a Charity Watch Party with the audio for the NY Rangers/Caps game (don't worry Habs fans- we will carry the audio for Game 2 tomorrow night).  During the Watch Party, we will be selling raffle tickets for a chance to win a Signed/Framed Henrik Lundqvist Winter Classic photo.

All proceeds from the raffle will go to OneFundBoston, in support of victims of the recent Boston Marathon bombings.  We have a lot of friends of the bar who are avid runners and ran in the Marathon, so this was a good way to show support.  We'll also raffle off other cool prizes such as Puckups and a cool King Henrik Tee (donated by TrueRivalry.com).

So we invite all hockey fans to join us tonight as we ring in the start of the march towards Lord Stanley's Cup!  Hope to see you tonight!


Cheers!